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East Allington Residents Action Group

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WELCOME! We are a dedicated group who have EA at heart. This page informs you about the developments regarding the Baker Estates housing plan.

APP: 1350/26/ARM
Send your comments / questions to [email protected]
Share to family, friends & neighbours

02/11/2026

BAKER ESTATES - THERE’S STILL TIME TO HAVE YOUR SAY

In the coming days the Planning Officers at South Hams District Council are expected to publish their decision on the proposed Baker Estates plan to build a 40-property housing estate in East Allington.

We will let you know the result as soon as it is published.

As you know, the EAST ALLINGTON RESIDENTS ACTION GROUP has submitted a detailed report of questions, observations and objections to the District Council regarding the Baker Estates plan.

In addition, the residents of East Allington have submitted more than two hundred of their own objections to the Baker Estates plan, as have well-respected organisations such as ‘The Campaign To Protect Rural England (Devon)’, ‘The South Hams Society’, ‘Devon Wildlife Trust’, and ‘The Rewilding Collective’.

BUT YOU CAN STILL HAVE YOUR SAY !!!

There is no limit to the number of comments and objections you can make to South Hams District Council planners - you can still send in your own personal list of QUESTIONS, OBSERVATIONS & OBJECTIONS.

To do so:

• Write to:

Development Management,
South Hams District Council,
Follaton House,
Plymouth Road,
Totnes TQ9 5NE

• Send an email to South Hams District Council planning officers at this address:

[email protected]

And if you’d like to keep an eye on the status of the Baker Estates decision:

• Click this link: https://southhams.planning-register.co.uk/Disclaimer?returnUrl=%2F

• Tick the Disclaimer

• Input the Application Reference No: 1350/26/ARM and Location: East Allington

• Then click on the reference number 1350/26/ARM and you’ll find the DECISION STATUS as shown in the picture below.

30/10/2026

WHAT WE REALLY NEED

Listening to the majority of your comments, what East Allington really needs is:

✔️A regular bus service to Kingsbridge and Totnes
✔️A village shop
✔️Community allotments, and
✔️The Public Right of Way to stay the same as it is now

A REGULAR BUS SERVICE AND A LOCAL SHOP

Many villagers say they need a regular bus service to Kingsbridge and Totnes for a whole host of reasons.

And they need a village shop.
Without a local shop every daily necessity requires a car. This increases traffic and isolates the young, the elderly, and people who don’t drive.
With a local shop residents would be able to buy both the necessities and other produce without having to travel miles to the nearest supermarket.

COMMUNITY ALLOTMENTS

The village needs integrated community allotments to connect neighbours and create both a vital village asset and ecological habitats.

PROW

The beloved Public Right of Way around the field, where Baker Estates plan to build their forty houses, needs to stay the same as it has always been.

IF YOU AGREE - MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD !!

Write to South Hams District Council Planning Department.

You can send your comment by EMAIL to:

[email protected]

Or by POST to:

South Hams District Council,
Development Management (Planning Department),
Follaton House,
Plymouth Road,
Totnes TQ9 5NE

28/10/2026

RURAL LAND IS NOT EMPTY LAND. IT’S WHAT KEEPS US ALIVE.

Farmland feeds our cities. Forests absorb carbon. Wetlands help filter water and reduce flooding. Open landscapes provide homes for wildlife.

Yet these places are often treated as vacant space, waiting for the next warehouse, highway, or housing development.

Once fertile soil is buried under concrete or an ancient habitat is destroyed, restoring it can take decades—or may never be fully possible.

Development has its place. But not every acre should be judged by how much money it can generate.

Land isn’t disposable. It’s the foundation of our food, water, wildlife, and future.

26/10/2026

THE BAKER ESTATES DECISION IS DUE

Next Sunday - the 1st of November - will mark six months to the day that the East Allington Residents Action Group started to discuss the proposed Baker Estates plan to build 40 new dwellings above East Allington.

And it will be six months to the day since the East Allington Residents Action Group launched its page.

In those six months our page has been viewed well over a quarter of a million times times by people like you who care about East Allington’s past - and East Allington’s future.

That is exactly why we set up the East Allington Residents Action Group.

We all live in East Allington because we love its history, its traditions, its farming background, its links to the Devon countryside, and, above all, its quality of life.

A perfect example of rural England.

People are friendly, there is a strong community spirit, we have our own pub, church and even our very own primary school.

In this modern world the quality of life and traditional values are slowly being eroded. And we don’t want that to happen here. We feel that once the door is opened to unnecessary development the precedent will be set and East Allington will quickly become the ‘old’ part of some sprawling urban development.

Since the first public meeting in the East Allington village hall back at the beginning of May we have received hundreds of questions, and sack-loads of advice from interested residents.

We listened to them all and put together a detailed list of points and questions which were presented to the Planning Officers of South Hams District Council once Baker Estates had published their detailed planning application.

Our ‘Impacts Report’ (see photo) was personally handed to the council’s Principal Planning Officer back in July - a report which contains a detailed list of questions, observations and objections relating to the proposed housing estate planned for East Allington.

Hundreds of hours of work went into producing the ‘Impacts Report’, which raised a very long list of questions about whether the proposed housing development was needed, was justified, and whether it complied with planning rules and regulations.

In addition, after studying the Baker Estates plan, local residents sent in well over 200 carefully-considered objections to the planning officials at South Hams District Council.

East Allington now has a unified voice - a group of people (including several planning experts) who want to maintain our way of life.

Please keep watching our page and keep spreading the word.

*** The Baker Estates decision is due any day now. If their application were to be refused, and they were to make an appeal, residents may not get a fresh opportunity to submit entirely new comments or objections to the Planning Officers at South Hams District Council. So it is important that your comments and objections are sent in NOW ***.

To do so you can:

• Write to:

Development Management,
South Hams District Council,
Follaton House,
Plymouth Road,
Totnes TQ9 5NE

• Send an email to South Hams District Council Planning Officers at this address:

[email protected]

Thank you.

24/10/2026

IF THE BAKER ESTATES APPLICATION IS REFUSED, IS THIS THE END?

This is the third and final article in a series about how the Baker Estates application to build a 40-dwelling housing estate above East Allington could be decided.

The first two articles:

‘THE BAKER ESTATES PROJECT – WHAT HAPPENS NOW?’

and

‘SATURDAY 31st OCTOBER – ALL CHANGE’

were posted recently on this page.

In this third article we ask the question:

IF THE BAKER ESTATES APPLICATION IS REFUSED, IS THIS THE END?

The answer to that question is…

…not necessarily.

If South Hams District Council refuses the Reserved Matters application, the developer may have the right to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

An independent Planning Inspector would then consider the planning issues and decide whether the Council's refusal should stand or whether the appeal should be allowed.

The developer may alternatively choose to revise the proposals and submit a different scheme.

So a refusal would be an important decision - but it would not necessarily be the end of the process.

If an appeal is lodged, we will keep you informed.

*** In the meantime, if the Baker Estates application were refused, and they do make an appeal, residents may not get a fresh opportunity to submit entirely new comments or objections. So it is important that any new comments or objections you may have are sent to the Planning Officers now ***

To do so you can:

• Write to:

Development Management,
South Hams District Council,
Follaton House,
Plymouth Road,
Totnes TQ9 5NE

• Send an email to South Hams District Council planning officers at this address:

[email protected]

For the latest news keep watching our page. We’ll
keep you informed.

Your support is priceless.

23/10/2026

SATURDAY 31st OCTOBER 2026 – ALL CHANGE !!!

The Government is changing how certain planning applications in England are determined.

After Saturday 31st October 2026 our understanding of the changes to be introduced is this:

1. The UK government's new National Scheme of Delegation will legally prevent an application from being decided by the local planning committee.

2. Mandatory Officer Delegation (Schedule 1): The new national regulations classify applications into two tiers. Reserved matters applications where the outline permission is for fewer than 500 dwellings fall strictly under Schedule 1. Because the Baker Estates application for East Allington (ref 1350/26/ARM) is a reserved matters application for 40 homes, it is legally mandated to be an officer-delegated decision in all cases.

3. Abolition of Local Call-In Triggers: The national reforms supersede South Hams District Council’s individual constitution. Traditional routes to the committee - including ward councillor call-ins, public objection thresholds, and Parish Council "contrary view" triggers – will be completely abolished.

4. Removal of Officer Discretion: For Schedule 1 applications, the Head of Development Management will no longer hold the discretionary power to refer the application to the committee, regardless of local public interest. (Only larger Schedule 2 applications, such as reserved matters for 500 or more dwellings, can be escalated, and only via a strict new "gateway test" requiring joint agreement from a Chief Planning Officer and a nominated member).

5. No Transitional Provisions: The legislation contains no transitional grace period for live applications. If an application remains undetermined on 31st October, any subsequent determination would have to be made under the new officer-delegation rules.

We will keep you informed of developments, so please keep watching our page.

Your support is priceless.

22/10/2026

BAKER ESTATES - WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

The closing date for public and expert comment on the proposed 40-dwelling housing estate above East Allington was back in July.

Since then the question on people’s minds has been:

WHAT HAPPENS NOW ?

In the next few days we’ll let you know what could happen now, so please keep a close eye on our page.

The principle of development on the East Allington site was established at outline planning stage a few years ago. But that does not mean the current plan for 40 homes has been approved.

Far from it !

South Hams District Council is now considering Baker Estates’ detailed Reserved Matters application, including:

• the proposed layout, scale, appearance and landscaping
• several planning conditions the developer is seeking to discharge.

This is the stage at which the Council considers whether the detailed scheme is acceptable and whether it complies with the outline permission and relevant planning policies. Consultation responses from the public, specialist officers and other organisations form part of that assessment.

After reviewing all the information South Hams District Council will either:

• approve the Reserved Matters application
• require further information or changes, or
• refuse it where there are sound planning and/or legal reasons for doing so.

So this application is very much still live - and we will continue to keep you updated as it progresses.

Keep watching.

Your support is priceless.

21/10/2026

YOUR SUPPORT IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

Once a District Council makes a decision about a major planning application it does not necessarily mean the end of the story.

Miles Davis, Devon political reporter for the BBC, gives us an example:
“A developer is appealing against the rejection of a plan to build 140 homes on the edge of a town.

Almost 600 people objected to the plans put forward by Landra Developments Ltd for the houses on fields in Ottery St Mary, in Devon.

East Devon District Council planning committee members refused the plans in May, citing concerns ranging from traffic congestion to the impact on the sewage system and the loss of agricultural land.

The developer is promising 56 affordable homes as part of the development and says there is good access to the site and a "buffer" between existing houses on Claremont Field, and the new homes would be part of the plans.

In its refusal, the planning committee said the development would "negatively impact the rural setting of Ottery St Mary, extending urban form to the south of the existing settlement, which will have a significant adverse effect on the established rural local landscape character".

With South Hams District Council due to make a decision on the Baker Estates plan to build 40 dwellings on agricultural land above East Allington your support is now more important than ever.

If you would like to comment on the Baker Estates project you can still email South Hams District Council at this email address: [email protected]

To read the Miles Davis article in full please click on this link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6ly0l2n9z94o

20/10/2026

THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING MANY BROWNFIELD DEVELOPMENT SITES

Over the past few years developers have lobbied the government to decide on a way to calculate new housing numbers that would maximise their profits.
And, as a result, the way this translates 1.5 million homes into targets for individual areas of the country is decided politically - and not as a result of real housing needs.

Most people think that housing numbers are calculated for individual local authorities according to the local need for homes. But this is not the case. The national target is a political target, and not one led by demand.
For this reason disproportionate pressure has been placed on rural areas, with no evidence that these rural areas are where new homes are actually needed.
Developers are therefore encouraged to build the kind of car-dependent ‘executive’ homes – on greenfield sites – that do nothing to fix the UK’s housing affordability crisis.
In addition to this there is growing evidence that much-heralded ‘brownfield’ developments are in many cases not what they appear to be.

The "Viability Loophole": Developers frequently secure planning permission for brownfield projects by promising social or affordable housing, then later claim rising construction or clean-up costs make it economically unviable. Because of this councils are often forced to let them pivot to high-profit luxury flats or scale back community contributions.

Dormant Land Banking: Studies by organisations like the CPRE show that hundreds of thousands of homes with approved planning permission on brownfield land remain unbuilt or lie dormant as private investors wait for maximum profitability.

Political & Policy Controversies: Proposals such as Reform UK's "Planning Teal Paper" have sparked intense backlash from housing campaigners for attempting to scrap affordable housing quotas, Section 106 contributions, and building/environmental standards on most brownfield sites.

Critics argue these sweeping deregulations prioritise short-term developer margins over safe, sustainable communities.

Contamination & Cleanup Risks: Redeveloping industrial, commercial, or former mining brownfields carries hidden financial and environmental hazards, including severe soil pollution or unstable subterranean foundations.

For sure, the UK needs more social and affordable housing.

But it could be argued that the present policies for housing development are, in many cases, not providing the right solution.

19/10/2026

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND AND COUNTING

This weekend our page passed the 250,000 mark !!

A quarter of a million views since our information campaign started back on the 1st of May 2026. Not bad for a little Devon village of just over 800 people.

We also have over 250 official followers, plus thousands of others all over the South Hams, who are keen to follow what’s happening in East Allington.

However, the campaign is far from over.

South Hams District Council’s planning team have still to make their decision about whether to approve the 40-dwelling housing estate above our village.

Depending on that decision the whole process may go to appeal, so we need every one of you to keep watching our page, and to keep supporting us.

Your help and support are priceless !!

Address

East Allington
Totnes
TQ97RA

Website

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